


take my heart, pull it apart

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: dimension 20 [71]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Campaign 01 Season 01: Fantasy High Freshman Year (Dimension 20), Gen, Hurt No Comfort, I dont know how to tag this really, Medical Trauma, Past Infidelity, Sort of? - Freeform, Tieflings, confusing and scary body changes, description of growing into tiefling features unaware you're a tiefling, gilear's bad reaction to fig's horns growing in, well intentioned but still bad parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26246293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: Fig Faeth has brown hair and brown eyes and a face full of freckles and a little bit of a sunburn from all the time she spent in the sun this summer, and she smiles at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair is tied in a ponytail with her cheer ribbon, and everything is perfect.“Today’s gonna be a great day,” she says, giving herself a thumbs up, and she believes it.She skips down the stairs, gives her mom a hug and her dad a kiss on the cheek, and then she goes to school. It’s a great day.(It's a great day. Until her horns grow in.)
Relationships: Figueroth Faeth & Gilear Faeth, Figueroth Faeth & Sandralynn Faeth
Series: dimension 20 [71]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706107
Comments: 19
Kudos: 140





	take my heart, pull it apart

**Author's Note:**

> having many feelings about fig in middle school going through growing into a tiefling and the interpersonal fallout of that. this was written in a dysphoric haze while i listened to the first fh: extra credit which is probably very evident  
> also lots of projecting in this one. so much projecting. don't even worry about it. if you need something tagged that i missed please let me know, this one was Difficult  
> title from body by mother mother  
> i am on tumblr [here](https://nonbinarywithaknife.tumblr.com/) <3

Fig Faeth has brown hair and brown eyes and a face full of freckles and a little bit of a sunburn from all the time she spent in the sun this summer, and she smiles at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair is tied in a ponytail with her cheer ribbon, and everything is perfect.

“Today’s gonna be a great day,” she says, giving herself a thumbs up, and she believes it.

She skips down the stairs, gives her mom a hug and her dad a kiss on the cheek, and then she goes to school. It’s a great day.

Fig Faeth has brown hair and brown eyes and cheeks full of freckles and a little bit of a sunburn and a _major_ headache. But it’s no big deal, because she’s got cheer practice after school today, so she brushes her teeth, ties up her hair, and tells her reflection, “Today’s gonna be a great day.”

Her thumbs up is a little less exuberant than usual, but she smiles brighter to make up for it, and she skips a little less down the stairs. She gives her mom a hug and her mom asks her if she’s sure she’s feeling okay, and Fig says, “Yeah!” and her mom frowns but lets her go anyway. Dad gives her a kiss on the cheek and reminds her to go to the nurse if she gets sick.

She goes to school, and unlike the other times she’s had a headache, the lights and the noise don’t bother her. But her head _hurts_ , so much she worries that her skull is going to explode, but it’s fine. It’s just a headache. Today’s gonna be a great day.

Fig Faeth has brown hair and brown eyes and cheeks full of freckles and a really bad headache, and a _really_ persistent sunburn.

But it’s not a big deal. Mom gives her a kid’s pain relief potion and dad gives her a jar of sunburn cream and a gentle reminder to use sunscreen. When Mom asks if Fig’s sure she’s feeling well enough to go to school, there’s something in her voice that makes Fig waver, but she says “Yeah!” and she gives her reflection a weak thumbs up and tells herself, “Today’s gonna be a great day,” and it’s almost not a lie.

She goes to school and her teacher gives her a worried frown and a pass to go to the nurse’s office and the nurse asks her if the lights are bothering her (no ma’am) if the noise is bothering her (no ma’am) if she’s nauseous (no ma’am, but I am _hungry_ ) and lets her lie down anyway.

Fig Faeth has brown hair, and cheeks full of freckles, and a really bad headache, and a really _persistent_ sunburn, and _brown eyes_. She does.

“Today’s gonna be a great day,” she tells her reflection, but she’s looking into her own eyes which means she can’t not see the tears that are threatening to run down her cheeks.

She _does_ have brown eyes. It’s just- that they used to be a solid oak brown like her dad’s and they still _are_ , because it’s probably just her bathroom’s _terrible_ lighting, but now instead of oak brown they almost look more like the red clay that her class learned about in science last year.

She doesn’t pull her hair up into a ponytail today. Instead, she lets her bangs hang low and when her mom goes to give her a hug she makes sure to avoid looking at her face and when her dad tries to give her a kiss on the cheek she darts forward and hugs him instead, and then she goes to school.

She’s almost used to the way it feels like her skull is on fire and the way her front teeth have started aching and the way her fingernails are starting to grow a lot faster than they used to.

Fig knows her mom is worried about her and that she and dad have been talking in their room a lot more than they used to and her sunburn hasn’t cleared up and almost seems like it’s worse, and she’s _scared_ , scared of the way her eyes have started to shine when she catches her reflection in the dark in the way she’s only ever seen her tabaxi classmates’ do before, but if she can just get better and figure this out, she can fix it.

If she just fixes it, Mom won’t look weird when she smiles at her in a way that seems like worried, but not for _Fig_ , and Dad won’t look at Mom with that weird look in his eye that’s almost like betrayal when he thinks Fig is distracted, and Fig’s head and teeth and nails will stop hurting and her eyes will be back to normal and her sunburn will go away and everything will be _fine_.

One week later, Fig is in her bathroom, and she has a poster taped over her mirror because if she doesn’t see her eyes then she can pretend they’re still the same oak brown as her dad’s, and she was brushing her hair but then there was a burst of pain so sharp she started seeing stars, and when she put her hands in her hair they came back covered in _blood_ , and Fig is pretty sure she’s screaming, and then the door to her bathroom is being busted open and her mom is there, her _mom is there_ , and Fig is scared and bleeding and her eyesight is fuzzy but her _mom_ _is there_.

She runs for her mom’s arms and her mom wraps her in the tightest hug ever, and everything is okay, because her mom is there.

(And then they go to the hospital and Fig’s horns are coming in. Her _horns_ are coming in because she’s a _tiefling_ and her mom _lied_.

Her parents are getting a divorce, but they didn’t want to tell her just yet because it’s just a separation right now, and _of course it’s not your fault sweetheart_ , but how could it not be Fig’s fault?

How could it not be her fault, when it’s _her_ horns and fangs and _claws_ that are coming in, and she doesn’t have a sunburn because she’s a _devil_ , because her _real dad_ was a _devil_ and apparently it’s not abnormal for some tieflings to have _tails_ , and the doctor gives her a pamphlet about what signs to look for and _tips_ for how to _care for her horns_ like this is _normal_ , like Fig’s not an _elf_ (she _isn’t_ , because her mom _lied_ , and _didn't tell Fig_ ) and he tells her that her darkvision is probably going to change ( _and_ _she wants to stop changing!_ ) 

They go home, and Fig is scared and confused and angry and wants her mom to wrap her up in a hug and to never come near her again, but mostly she just wants her dad to give her a kiss on the cheek and tell her that it's gonna be okay.

They go home, and dad’s not there.

**Author's Note:**

> yes this is part of a series no i make no promises to actually write more


End file.
